It costs money to make things in a video game. The software needed to achieve an eye-catching aesthetic aren't cheap and the manpower to run them costs money, too. So, when it came time to make their upcoming project Rustclad, the folks at Skull Theater took a different approach: they're making most of the objects you'll see in the game.

The process they're using is called photogrammetry and it essentially replicates pictures of real-world objects into 3D digital counterparts. You can see a bit of it in the video above and here's how they explain it on their blog:

It's the process of creating a geometric representation of an object from photographs. In the context of video game development, you can think of it as creating 3D digital art from a physical object. Photogrammetry is a bit of a mouthful, so we often call it "3D Capture".

Another indie game—Death Inc.—has creators making real-world structures, too. Skull Theater's approach isn't just a fancy tech angle; it already looks like it's adding some soul to the creation of their game world.